Singular Mythologies

Anna Torma
Claire Labonté
Marigold Santos

October 7th to December 18th

"To speak of mythology in connection with art is to give voice to the artwork, its history and its singular content with respect to the artist’s life. Claire Labonté, Anna Torma and Marigold Santos present works that have in common a highly particular form of personal research that ties together art and craft, creation and mythology."

- Isabelle de Mévius

In its first group exhibition, 1700 La Poste is pleased to present three Canadian artists, Claire Labonté, Anna Torma, and Marigold Santos.

Invoking the myth of Arachne, the exhibition offers a unique perspective on their work, highlighting the handcrafted dimension and personal nature of their production. This exhibition bridges the gap between traditionally “feminine” practices and those of contemporary art, with their critical commentary on our era and its social dictates.

Examining themes such as creation myths, the social construction of the feminine throughout history, and conceptualizations of reality, the works of these three artists reflect the anthropological, aesthetic, and personal framework of their explorations.

Anna Torma

Anna Torma was born in Tarnaors, Hungary, in 1952, and immigrated to Canada in 1988. Having been introduced to traditional embroidery by her mother and grandmother, in 1979 she was granted a degree in Textile Art and Design from the Hungarian University of Applied Arts, Budapest. Torma has been exhibiting her art since leaving art school, producing mainly large hand- embroidered wall hangings and collages. Her work has been shown internationally and has been represented in major public collections. She is member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and recipient of the Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for High Achievements in Visual Arts.

Marigold Santos

Marigold Santos was born in Manila, Philippines, in 1981. She pursues an interdisciplinary art practice involving drawn, painted, printed and sculpted works as well as animation and sound. Santos holds a BFA in Printmaking from the University of Calgary and an MFA from Concordia University (Montreal). She is a recipient of numerous awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. She has exhibited extensively across Canada and internationally, and her work has been shown in more than 10 solo exhibitions.

Claire Labonté

Claire Labonté is a self-taught artist who deploys minutely executed motifs across large surfaces. Over the years, her initially naïve painting evolved into an obsessive autopoeisis. This examination of the notion of painting “making itself” revealed two involuntary constants in her production: the repetitive nature of her process and the mythological dimension of the resulting works. Claire Labonté has participated in international exhibitions in Switzerland and France, including the fourth Biennale international des arts Hors Normes in Lyon. She is the recipient of awards and grants from Switzerland, Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts. Her murals have been integrated into the architecture of a number of public buildings.